Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Canyon pats his bare stomach. “I’m a growing bear.”
“Sure you are.” Hutch rolls his eyes.
Canyon sits up and snaps his fingers. “What about the beehives? We could sell the honey.”
“Oh, that’d be cute,” I pipe up. “I can see the logos now: Bad Bear Bee Farm.”
“No,” Bern says. “Everest doesn't want to let us take any honey. He's too attached to the bees. Besides, how are we going to make ten million selling goods at a farmer’s market? We need to brainstorm another way.” He props his chin in his hands, looking glum. “Teddy has a helicopter business, but he’s not looking to expand yet.”
“And after today’s little joyride, he’s probably not letting me near his bird anytime soon.” Canyon looks equally glum.
“Too bad,” I say. “I could sew you some matching jumpsuits.”
“Matching jumpsuits?” Hutch says. “Aww, man. We gotta convince Teddy.”
“Good luck with that,” Canyon says. “The point is we need to find a way to get our hands on the money fast.”
“Got it. And how does Darius come in?”
“He has plans to pay back the debt, but they all involve selling tracts of land to build condos.”
I ponder this. “That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s a housing shortage, and if they were built sustainably–”
Canyon makes a face. “Teddy says all Darius cares about is making money. I wouldn’t bet on him doing anything that cuts into his bottom line.”
“Gotcha.”
“Darius is going to present his plans to pay back the debt tonight,” Canyon continues. “And we’ll all vote on it. The thing is, we have to come up with an alternative, otherwise people might vote for what Darius wants. Also, Teddy thinks that Darius engineered all of this, so he could get the town to agree to his condo idea. And guess who owns the real estate company who would build the condos?”
“Darius?”
“Darius.”
“Got it.” Now it all makes sense. Teddy’s hatred of his twin, the way he blamed Darius for the mountain’s problems. “Teddy thinks Darius engineered all of this to get the town in a position to agree to build the condos?”
“Something like that. I gotta hand it to Darius—his plan is better than what the hedge fund wants to do,” Hutch says. “If we default, they’ll probably take over, implement austerity measures, and sell off parts of the mountain for logging.”
I grimace. “That’s no good.”
“No. It’ll destroy our habitat.”
Both Hutch and Canyon look so down, I clap my hands, making them jump. “Guys! We can turn this around. We can raise the money.”
“But ten million dollars?”
“We can do it. We can figure something out. I can think of a few ideas, but first and most importantly, I need your help with something.”
The two triplets look alert.
“Even if I can think up a way to raise money for the mountain and convince Teddy to take me, what am I going to wear?”
“I can help with that.” Hutch jumps up. “Wait here.” He returns lugging a vintage black sewing machine with the Singer logo emblazoned on the side.
“OMG,” I scoot to the edge of the couch. “Does it work?”
“Oh yeah. It’s Ma’s. She taught us how to use it.” He sets the heavy machine on the coffee table in front of me. “Now we just need fabric.”
I smile. “I have some ideas.”
Teddy
“And that’s a wrap.” Lance, one of the Black Wolf pack’s shifters and former member of my unit in the Army, grabs the back door to the van we’ve been working out of and slams it shut. “No more body. And for my next trick, I’ll make the bombed out car disappear.”
“Thank you.” My bear is itching to get back to Lana’s side.
Lance sees me fidgeting, and his face splits into a grin. “Oh, and welcome to the club.”
“Club?”
“The mated shifter club. Lana’s your mate, right?”
I hesitate. I haven’t marked her. But of course, the urge is there. I can’t pretend any more that it’s not true. She’s definitely my mate.
“Yeah.” It feels good to admit it. But damn, if it fills me with fear.
“Yeah,” Lance repeats, nodding at the look at my face. “Trust me, I know exactly what you’re feeling right now. Happy and crazy all at once.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “It’s just…she’s so fragile.”
“You’d be protective of her even if she wasn’t human. She’s got an assassin targeting her. And even if she didn’t, you’d still want to lock her in a bunker and hide her from the world.”
“Sounds about right. Speaking of which, what intel do you have on Lana’s stepbrother?”
Lance’s jovial mood drops away. “We’re still tracking Bentley Dupree. He’s smart. He’s gone into hiding. I bet he does that until he knows Lana is dead.”
“We can make him believe that.” Rafe approaches with Deke behind him. Deke’s wearing dark aviator shades and coiling up some rope. I have no idea what he needed rope for, and I don’t want to know.